We Speak Men's College Basketball

Grit Over Glamour: Michigan Muscles Past UConn 69-63 for Its First National Title Since 1989

Published

7 months ago

April 7, 2026

Michigan did not shoot its way to a national championship. It defended its way there. The top-seeded Wolverines beat No. 2 seed UConn 69-63 on Monday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, claiming the program’s second national title and its first since 1989 — and giving the Big Ten its first men’s basketball championship since Michigan State in 2000.

This was a rock fight from the opening tip. Michigan led just 33-29 at halftime, missed its first 11 three-point attempts and finished 2-for-15 from deep. It did not matter, because the Wolverines’ defense never blinked: UConn shot 31 percent from the field (21-for-68), committed 11 turnovers against six Michigan blocks, and was whistled for 22 fouls to Michigan’s 13. Michigan sealed the game at the free-throw line, finishing 25-for-28.

Final Four Most Outstanding Player Elliot Cadeau led Michigan with 19 points, including the team’s first three-pointer, which did not fall until 7:04 into the second half; Cadeau averaged 16 points and six assists across the Final Four weekend. Freshman Trey McKenney hit Michigan’s second three with 1:50 left to stretch the lead to nine. Yaxel Lendeborg, playing through knee and foot injuries, added 13 points, and Morez Johnson Jr. posted 12 points and 10 rebounds.

UConn, the 2023 and 2024 champion chasing a third title in four seasons, made one last push. Solo Ball banked in a three to cut the margin to four with 37 seconds left, and after two missed Michigan free throws, Alex Karaban — who led the Huskies with 17 points — grazed the rim on a three that would have made it a one-point game with 17 seconds remaining. McKenney’s free throws closed it out.

The title caps a 37-3 season in Dusty May’s second year in Ann Arbor, for a team that arrived in the final as the first in tournament history to score at least 90 points in five straight games. May said afterward that what made the group uncommon was simple: they decided from the beginning how they would do it, and they never wavered.

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Gators Open on Top: Florida Leads Seven SEC Teams in the Preseason AP Top 25

Published

6 days ago

October 19, 2026

We Speak Media

Florida will open the 2026-27 season where it finished the 2025 one: on top. The Gators are No. 1 in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 released Monday, collecting 47 of 59 first-place votes and 1,461 points from the national media panel. It is Florida’s first preseason No. 1 ranking since 2006, and the program’s first time atop the poll since the final poll of 2025, which followed its 2025 national championship.

Duke opens at No. 2 with 10 first-place votes and Illinois at No. 3 with the remaining two, with UConn and Arizona rounding out the top five. Michigan State, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia and Houston complete the top 10, followed by Louisville, Arkansas, St. John’s, Miami and Gonzaga. Defending national champion Michigan opens at No. 16. The SEC made the poll’s loudest conference statement, placing seven teams in the Top 25: Florida (1), Texas (7), Tennessee (8), Arkansas (12), Alabama (20), Kentucky (23) and Vanderbilt (24).

Unlike most contenders in the transfer portal era, Florida brings back genuine experience. Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu and Denzel Aberdeen all played on the Gators’ 2025 title team, and Aberdeen returned after a year at Kentucky as one of the players granted another season of eligibility by the courts. The No. 1 ranking is also a rebound story: Florida opened last season at No. 3, fell out of the poll entirely by early January, rallied to win the SEC regular-season title, then was stunned by Iowa as a No. 1 seed in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Coach Todd Golden shrugged at the ranking, noting the program has been No. 1 before and won a national championship before — and that is what he wants it to expect.

Elsewhere in the poll, Kentucky is making its 998th appearance in the AP rankings, two weeks shy of becoming the first program to reach 1,000; Vanderbilt is in the preseason Top 25 for the first time since 2015; and No. 17 Kansas features the nation’s No. 1 recruit, Tyran Stokes, plus Purdue transfer Trey Kaufman-Renn. The season tips off in early November, with ranked teams opening play on November 2.